Larry Summers: Foolish, Arrogant Human (Pretty Much Like the Rest of Us)

The New Yorker magazine has a long article on Larry Summers which makes for fascinating reading if you're interested in politics or economics. What stood out to me is the following quote from Mr. Summers:

When he applied to the graduate program in economics at Harvard, where he studied from 1975 to 1979, the beginning of his essay read, “Many children are taught to believe in God. I came to believe in the power of systems analysis.”

I think Psalms 49.20 is apropos here: “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” I do not believe that it has fully occurred to Mr. Summers that the chance that he will die one day is exactly 100%. Systems analysis will be of no help to him at that point.